Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The speaker is the writer of the poem and he is speaking from his own point of view.
Form and Meter
There is no specific form or meter.
Metaphors and Similes
"People will not care if Dick finally got down with Jane" is a metaphor for a shift in people's perceptions of what is important and also a shift in the way that generations have been taught about the world in the same way as their elders even if it is no longer relevant to the way the world actually is.
Alliteration and Assonance
N/A
Irony
The key irony is the assumption that the media will not cover the revolution when in actual fact the media will hype up almost any degree of unrest and call it a revolution if it means that they are able to get ratings.
Genre
Song, political poetry
Setting
There is no location specified in the poem; the time is 1970
Tone
Combative, challenging, resentful.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists are the revolutionaries, the antagonists are the media who are not showing the revolution on television.
Major Conflict
There is conflict between the revolutionary protesters and the media.
Climax
The climax of the poem comes in the last two lines, in what is a combination of a veiled threat or a promise, that people should not wait to watch the revolution on the news, it will come to them in their homes whether they like it or not.
Foreshadowing
The continual statement "the revolution will not be televised" foreshadows the believed lack of media coverage in the event of an actual revolution.
Understatement
The writer observes that there is more likely to be coverage of Jackie Onassis blowing her nose than their is an entire social revolution going on outside. This understates the media obsession with celebrity and also understates the writer's resentment of this.
Allusions
Several political figures of the day are alluded to, for example, Spiro Agnew, Jackie Onassis and Johnny Cash.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The Whites is the term that the writer uses to encompass all white people, and also all of the government of the day.
Personification
The revolution is personified in that it seems to be able to decide for itself where it wants to take place.
Hyperbole
The writer asserts that people will no longer care about anything that they had cared about previously which is hyperbolic in that they will likely still care, even if the way in which they view things is slightly changing.
Onomatopoeia
N/A
